Alias failure for WD My Book Firewire Backup Drive

HI,

Try repairing disk permissions.

Quit any open applications/programs. Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select the FirstAid tab. Click: Repair Disk Permissions. When it's finished from the Menu Bar, Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac. If you see a long list of "messages" in the permissions window, it's ok. That can be ignored. As long as you see, "Permissions Repair Complete" when it's finished... you're done. Quit Disk Utility and restart your Mac.






Carolyn 🙂

I am also having the same problem with an external drive connected via USB. Except it's not intermittent. I can access the drive and its files via terminal but I can't seem to get anywhere in finder. I tried repairing the disk, and the disk permissions with no luck. Tried mounting and unmounting. Anyone have any other ideas?

Hi,
same here two WD drives not working well with the alias on the desktop with 10.6. Also connected with USB no access to Alias or not found or broken. But only WD Western Digital HD. All other manufactures working well here. I will try to empty one and format new with 10.6 see what happens. Access over a TM is possible but only directly over the finder not with the icons on Desktop. Any other Ideas?

My WD 500 HD works fine. I had to rewire it, as I had an external burner going into it and then it was plugged via FW into my single 400 port. Burner wasn't seen that way. Now the burner is going directly into the 400 port and the HD goes into the burner. Of course, the burner has to be on for the HD to work, but the icon pops up fine on the desktop and I can access everything that way.

Add me to the list. My situation is a Drobo with 3 Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB drives installed. Very annoying. Have run the Disk Utility as suggested - no improvement. Why do Data Robotics say that they have tested their product with Snow Leopard when after 5 minutes with a pretty standard configuration I am having problems? These guys have had access to various builds for nearly 12 months and clearly don't properly test their products.

Very frustrating.

I tried the problem drive in a new enclosure that had firewire 400, firewire 800, and USB. Same problem on all ports. Other drives in the same enclosures work fine. It seems to be some property of the drive and or drive formatting.

Similar problem here. I get the error:

"The alias “ ” can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found."

Called Apple spoke with a very pleasant person; she explained that Snow Leopard is new, I might try repairing permissions, and it's most likely the WD drive... so I called WD. "Its not US, we test our products before we sell them." "Thats a bold statement" I say. "We've only been talking for four minutes, I was on the phone with Apple for about an hour." He tells me to download Path Finder or Xfolders or FileBrowse.

They all work perfectly. No alias problems, to error messages, no missing original volume.

I know this is not a fix, I like Finder (I would like it more if it worked). I hope an update fixes the problem soon. I hope this helps someone in the meantime.

Update:
I think I just fixed the problem. I was using Path Finder, chose Get Info, and unchecked Alias bit. Problem solved.

Message was edited by: Sarance

Message was edited by: Sarance

HD still works w/FW, but the burner won't get a "stable connection." USB2 seems to work, though. This is the first time I have bought an upgrade (started at 10.0.3) that it killed a basic function. An app I understand, but Firewire connectivity? For shame, Apple.

This fixed my issue. Thanks Sarance. So weird. I have three external drives. My FAT formatted drive mounts and opens fine. My other two drives are both Mac OS Extended - one opened fine and the other did not. When I opened the "Get Info" option in Path Finder, the Alias bit was unchecked on the one that mounts and opens fine, but it was checked on the drive that didn't mount and open properly. I uncheck it and all is well.

EXTERNAL USB Drive will not open with Snow Leopard

External USB drive will open with SL. The drive icon appears on the desktop. When I click on it, Error message, "The alias USB Drive can't be opened because the original item can't be found." When I click on "Fix Alias", a window pops up and shows the usb drive in a list but does not respond when I click on it. I then tried disk utility and tested the disk and it tested OK. The drive still will not open. This problem started after I installed Snow Leopard. Need Help.

HD still works w/FW, but the burner won't get a "stable connection." USB2 seems to work, though. This is the first time I have bought an upgrade (started at 10.0.3) that it killed a basic function. An app I understand, but Firewire connectivity? For shame, Apple.

Where were you when Leopard broke many of the Western Digital MyBook firewire drives because they cut some corners and had to come out with a firmware update, or when 10.5.7 broke many USB drives sold by Buffalo? It's the same answer as then, buy products from company's that cut corners and get grief.

Every version of OS X has revealed hardware that was only marginally compatible. You don't get or maintain performance and reliability by allowing sloppy or cheap hardware or flakey hub connections to slow down a system or allow files to become corrupted.

Thanks for the tip. This worked. For future reference does anyone know how to alter the alias bit via terminal? Just want to better understand what is it and what went wrong.

Canon scanner and Pioneer drive? Marginal? I recall when one of the upgrades broke Epson totally. Remember using Gimp? I understand drivers being in need of upgrade. But FW is pretty basic. Plug and play. As for WD, I waited on Leopard a few months. Snow seemed to be a streamlining OS, not a major redo. Guess they streamlined FW right out the door. 🙂

Snow seemed to be a streamlining OS, not a major redo. Guess they streamlined FW right out the door. 🙂

I look at SL as a performance upgrade. It's going to provide a foundation for the next level of enhancements for updated programs and newer hardware. In order to keep the performance and reliability Apple may tighten timing routines, error checking, acknowledgement requirements, etc. I believe this is what happened with both the WD firewire and the Buffalo USB issues.

It's also possible for an update to just make a dumb mistake. Now, the reason for this thread has been proven to be a setting for the alias bit on a few drives. Not something to worry about for most people.

FW has always been tricky, when daisy chained. It reminds me of the old SCSI VooDoo, with the order of devices in the chain making a difference in performance or not working at all. I suspect the problems are rooted in the timing of the different chip sets being used for FW.

As far as a Canon scanner or a Pioneer drive, there are many more examples of good brands of equipment having problems with OS upgrades. Many FW drives from Western Digital do not have the firmware problem, and many of the Buffalo USB drives worked after 10.5.7. Luck of the draw.

Very few of the hardware issues that have popped up over the last decade have actually been proven to be Apple's fault, other than exposing a weakness. The ones that are actually caused by a OS upgrade are usually fixed with the .1 or .2 upgrade. Nothing new here. .0 releases are not for the squeamish or for important business related machines and never without a bootable backup.